Individualism Versus Collectivism and the Early-Stage Transmission of COVID-19

Shuguang Jiang (), Qian Wei and Luyao Zhang
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Shuguang Jiang: Shandong University
Qian Wei: Shandong University
Luyao Zhang: Duke Kunshan University

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2022, vol. 164, issue 2, No 11, 821 pages

Abstract: Abstract We propose a perspective based on the individualism versus collectivism (IC) cultural distinction to understand the diverging early-stage transmission outcomes of COVID-19 between countries. Since individualism values personal freedom, people in such cultures would be less likely to make the collective action of staying at home and less likely to support compulsory measures. As a reaction to the public will, governments of individualistic societies would be more hesitant to take compulsory measures, leading to the delay of necessary responses. With processed COVID-19 data that can provide a fair comparison, we find that COVID-19 spread much faster in more individualistic societies than in more collectivistic societies. We further use pronoun drop and absolute latitude as the instruments for IC to address reverse causality and omitted variable bias. The results are robust to different measures. We propose to consider the role of IC not only for understanding the current pandemic but also for thinking about future trends in the world.

Keywords: Individualism versus collectivism; COVID-19; Government response; IV-2SLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-022-02972-z

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